Parents hit with School Dinner Tax

Plans have been released to charge parents currently receiving free school meals. Under proposals released by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), parents will be required to pay £1.27 per day for each day that their child is at school and receiving a free school meal.

Shadow Secretary of state for Schools; Stephen Twigg commented “this is another example of the government being out of touch, Here we see the Tory led coalition imposing a school dinner tax on some of the most vulnerable children in society, the Labour party will oppose this”.

A DWP spokesman refuted Labours claim saying “Changes to the Free School Meal rules are not a School Dinner tax but an exercise in fairness, hard working parents do not have the luxury of having the school feed their children. In a modern fair society, this is simply unaffordable. Every summer parents feed their children whilst the schools are closed, they clearly can afford to feed their children in these weeks so why should hard working families and the state subsidise them.”

I like the concept and had a stab at a partial rewrite. Feel free to reject/criticise/slap me on the back and call me Malcom etc:

Plans have been revealed to charge parents currently receiving free school meals. Under proposals released by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), parents will be required to pay £1.27 per day for each day that their child is at school and receiving a free school meal.

Shadow Secretary of state for Schools; Stephen Twigg commented “this is another example of the government being out of touch, Here we see the Tory led coalition imposing a school dinner tax on some of the most vulnerable children in society, the Labour party will oppose this”.

A DWP spokesman refuted Labour's claim saying “Changes to the Free School Meal rules are simply the withdrawal of the Gratis Nutrition Subsidy. Hard working parents do not have the luxury of having the school feed their children. In a modern, fair society, this is simply unaffordable. Every Summer parents feed their children whilst the schools are closed. It is clear that they can afford to feed their children in these weeks so why should hard working families and the State subsidise them during term time? The change will only apply to State Schools; those parents who choose to make alternative arrangements for the education of their children will be unaffected.”

Some children are eligible for free school meals. A "School Meal Tax" is to be imposed on all other parents of school-age children, whereby they will be obliged to pay for their children's school meals.